SPRING PRACTICE PERIOD: Stories from the Lotus Sutra

Dogen-Zenji so cherished the Lotus Sutra that he actually carved a selection of it into his door. This, the core text of not only Zen but the whole of Mahayana Buddhism, has never lost its appeal among practitioners of the Way. Join us for our SPRING PRACTICE PERIOD: Stories From the Lotus Sutra led by Sensei Joshin Byrnes, Sensei Genzan Quennell

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EDITOR'S NOTE

Image: "Green Tara" by Mayumi Oda

We dedicate this issue, to listening to the cries of the earth.

To hear these cries within us is a task Thich Nhat Hanh implores of us, as Marlee Hosho Ross so beautifully reminds us, in her piece about bearing witness to the many layers of suffering at the Alberta Tar Sands.

In the first line of the “Ten Line Sutra of Avalokiteshvara’s Boundless Life,” we chant, “Avalokiteshvara, Perceiver of the Cries of the World.” Avalokiteshvara is the Bodhisattva of Compassion, bearing witness to the pain of the world and actualizing compassion—this is our path. It is one that requires “the integration of love and necessity,” an idea from James Hillman that Roshi discusses in her piece “Leaning Into the Light.”

In his writing "The Compassionate Attitude of Bodhichitta,"Tsoknyi Rinpoche speaks to the power of motivation in our practice, the importance of compassion as the spring that feeds our motivation:

Dharma practice is not meant merely to make oneself feel better. The whole point of spiritual practice is to liberate oneself through realization and also to liberate others through compassionate capacity. To practice in order to feel better only brings one back up to that same level—one never makes any real progress. With this attitude spreading in the West, we may see a huge scarcity of enlightened masters in the future. They will become an endangered species.

When it comes to the destruction our life-support system, planet Earth, we are reminded that “The Time to Act is Now” by the Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change. Green is not only the color of the environmental movement but also of the Karma Buddha Family, like Green Tara, with one foot stepping down out of meditation, ready for action.

This precious human birth, Ben Howard intones, in his thoughtful reflection on the power of this Buddhist slogan. This precious life on earth.

The time to act is now.

Áine McCarthy, Editor

THIS MONTH AT UPAYA

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Dharma Talk, Daily Practice

Photo of Sensei Irène Kaigetsu Kyojo Bakker

DHARMA TALK — July 24

Sensei Irène Kaigetsu Kyojo Bakker, Not Necessarily So

DAILY PRACTICE

7:00 am, 12:20 pm (see exceptions below) and 5:30 pm.Please arrive 5 minutes early for sitting periods and events. Park in the East parking lot (2nd driveway — the one farther from town).

This year's SUMMER PRACTICE PERIOD, Jul 18 — Aug 4, is a rich time of deep practice and study at Upaya Zen Center.The focus is on views of emptiness/boundlessness, from Nagarjuna to the Heart Sutra. Click here for info and to register.

Summer practice period continues this week with a sesshin, led by Senseis Kaz Tanahashi and Kaigetsu Bakker, which will provide a deep dive into the Heart Sutra. Sensei Kaz is a longtime friend of Upaya, a world-respected calligrapher and scholar of Dogen Zenji. His new book on the Heart Sutra is due out shortly, being published by Shambhala Publications. Sensei Kaigetsu Irene Bakker is a dharma heir of Roshi Joan and brings a special quality of compassion and precision into her practice. The practice period ends with a splendid calligraphy workshop led by Kaz. Throughout the weeks, there will be seminars, service training, teachings by Kaigetsu, Shinzan and Kaz, plus daily practice, and the opportunity to meet with the teachers and Upaya's Practice Mentors: Shinzan, Joshin, and Jiryu. These are always deep and enriching times at Upaya, where we have the opportunity to actualize practice in the completeness of life.

Special Invitation: Sensei Fleet Maull at Upaya

Please join us for two remarkable upcoming programs with Sensei Fleet Maull:

Sensei Fleet Maull is the co-founder of Upaya's Chaplaincy Training Program. Roshi Joan met Fleet through correspondence while he was in prison. Their connection has fostered a rich collaboration on many different projects, from Mind and Life to the Zen Peacemaker Order, as well as being a consultant to Upaya's organization. Roshi gave Sensei Fleet Denkai several years ago. Fleet is an author and master teacher who has facilitated deep transformation for individuals and organizations.

Fleet Maull has been a student of the Vidyadhara, the Venerable Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche since 1977 and is a student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. He earned a masters degree in Buddhist and Western Psychology from Naropa University in 1979, attended the Vajradhatu Seminaries and Kalapa Assemblies, 1981 – 1984, and received the Vajrayogini Abhisheka in 1989. He is currently completing his dissertation for a Ph.D. in social psychology. Fleet has been a Dorje Kasung since 1978, attending the Magyal Pomra Encampments, 1979 – 1984, and serving the Vidyadhara as kusung and then attaché, traveling extensively with the Vidyadhara, 1981 – 1984. Maull Kado currently serves as kusung to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

Fleet founded Prison Dharma Network in 1989, National Prison Hospice Association in 1991, Peacemaker Institute in 2001, and the Center for Contemplative End of Life Care Programs at Naropa University in 2003. He served on the Naropa University faculty from 1999 to 2009, teaching courses in psychology, meditation, and socially engaged buddhism. He has also served as senior faculty with the Upaya’s Being with Dying program.

Fleet is also a Dharma successor of Zen master and social entrepreneur, Roshi Bernie Glassman, and a fully empowered teacher or Sensei and senior priest in the Zen Peacemaker Sangha and the Soto Zen lineage of Maezumi Roshi. As a Zen peacemaker, Fleet serves as a spirit holder of the annual Bearing Witness Retreat at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland and leads street retreats and other bearing witness retreats.

His teaching and peacemaking activities range from retreat and Dharma centers to the streets of major cities, to former death camps in Poland, to Rwanda and Israel-Palestine, to corporate board rooms and to the forgotten world inside our jails and prisons. Fleet is the author of Dharma in Hell, the Prison Writings of Fleet Maull and numerous articles and book chapters in the fields of corrections, end of life care and socially engaged buddhism.

ROSHI JOAN: News, Teachings, Travels

Photo of Roshi Joan at Prajna Mountain Buddhist Refuge

Roshi and many others were deeply inspired by John Dunne's exceptional teaching on Nagarjuna these past days. Upaya is exploring John returning to teach on Shantideva next year; he will also be in the Zen Brain program on consciousness and complexity. John has a remarkable mind and brings to Upaya a level of scholarship that Upaya profoundly values.

Roshi returned to the Refuge to be in personal retreat til her 71st birthday, as the community is in the weave of the summer practice period with Senseis Kaz and Kaigetsu.

She returns to Upaya on July 31 for a quiet birthday, and then makes her way back to the mountains for a few days before coming down for Upaya's chaplaincy training with Fleet Maull, Alan Senauke, Cheri Maples, Bernie Glassman, a very rich time of learning for her.

Roshi will be either at Upaya or the Refuge the rest of the summer.

All is very vibrant at Upaya at this time, and there is a lot of gratitude for our local sangha and residents who keep the practice stream flowing.

Roshi has produced a new book of photos for Upaya's Mountain Members. This beautiful book is called: GOING BEYOND. Mountain Members will receive a signed copy in thanks for their membership: http://www.upaya.org/membership/

We are accepting applications for Upaya's resident program. Please consider joining Roshi, Visiting Teachers, and Upaya for three months or more of dedicated practice and learning. By application, click here.

Roshi as well has a number of papers she has written on compassion. If you wish to receive a copy, please write the office: upaya@upaya.org

For several new videos of interviews with Roshi Joan on Upaya's Blog, click here.

Roshi Joan started a Google+ Community and more than 1400 people have joined so far. Click here to join.

Upaya is guided by a series of remarkable Visiting Teachers. We are grateful for Sensei Robert Thomas (Nov 2013), Sensei Irene Bakker (Jul/Aug 2013), Roshi Eido Frances Carney (Sep 2013). Also, we are happy that Sensei Alan Senauke is now a Core Teacher for our Chaplaincy Training and will be a Visiting Teacher in spring, 2014. Note that Roshi Norman Fischer will be leading Upaya's Summer Ango in 2014 and Sensei Robert Thomas will be leading spring sesshin, 2014 and will be a Visiting Teacher in fall 2014.

Roshi now has five new books available for sale at Upaya: Four are photography books — "Seeing Inside," "About Face," "Original Face: Unmediated Expressions of Tibet, Nepal, Burma," and "Leaning into the Light." "Lone Mallard" is a book of her haiku. In addition, over a hundred of her remarkable photos are available to look at (and purchase) on Upaya's website:https://www.upaya.org/seeing-inside/

FEATURE ARTICLES

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The Time to Act is Now: A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change

Today we live in a time of great crisis, confronted by the gravest challenge that humanity has ever faced: the ecological consequences of our own collective karma. The scientific consensus is overwhelming: human activity is triggering environmental breakdown on a planetary scale.

Global warming, in particular, is happening much faster than previously predicted, most obviously at the North Pole. For hundreds of thousands of years, the Arctic Ocean has been covered by an area of sea-ice as large as Australia—but now this is melting rapidly. In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast that the Arctic might be free of summer sea ice by 2100. It is now apparent that this could occur within a decade or two. Greenland’s vast ice-sheet is also melting more quickly than expected. The rise in sea-level this century will be at least one meter—enough to flood many coastal cities and vital rice-growing areas such as the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.

Glaciers all over the world are receding quickly. If current economic policies continue, the glaciers of the Tibetan Plateau, source of the great rivers that provide water for billions of people in Asia, are likely to disappear by mid-century. Severe drought and crop failures are already affecting Australia and Northern China. Major reports—from the IPCC, United Nations, European Union, and International Union for Conservation of Nature—agree that, without a collective change of direction, dwindling supplies of water, food and other resources could create famine conditions, resource battles, and mass migration by mid-century—perhaps by 2030, according to the U.K.’s chief scientific advisor.

Global warming plays a major role in other ecological crises, including the loss of many plant and animal species that share this Earth with us. Oceanographers report that half the carbon released by burning fossil fuels has been absorbed by the oceans, increasing their acidity by about 30%. Acidification is disrupting calcification of shells and coral reefs, as well as threatening plankton growth, the source of the food chain for most life in the sea.

Eminent biologists and U.N. reports concur that “business-as-usual” will drive half of all species on Earth to extinction within this century. Collectively, we are violating the first precept—“do not harm living beings”—on the largest possible scale. And we cannot foresee the biological consequences for human life when so many species that invisibly contribute to our own well-being vanish from the planet.

Many scientists have concluded that the survival of human civilization is at stake. We have reached a critical juncture in our biological and social evolution. There has never been a more important time in history to bring the resources of Buddhism to bear on behalf of all living beings. The four noble truths provide a framework for diagnosing our current situation and formulating appropriate guidelines—because the threats and disasters we face ultimately stem from the human mind, and therefore require profound changes within our minds. If personal suffering stems from craving and ignorance—from the three poisons of greed, ill will, and delusion—the same applies to the suffering that afflicts us on a collective scale. Our ecological emergency is a larger version of the perennial human predicament. Both as individuals and as a species, we suffer from a sense of self that feels disconnected not only from other people but from the Earth itself. As Thich Nhat Hanh has said, “We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.” We need to wake up and realize that the Earth is our mother as well as our home—and in this case the umbilical cord binding us to her cannot be severed. When the Earth becomes sick, we become sick, because we are part of her.

Our present economic and technological relationships with the rest of the biosphere are unsustainable. To survive the rough transitions ahead, our lifestyles and expectations must change. This involves new habits as well as new values. The Buddhist teaching that the overall health of the individual and society depends upon inner well-being, and not merely upon economic indicators, helps us determine the personal and social changes we must make.

Individually, we must adopt behaviors that increase everyday ecological awareness and reduce our “carbon footprint”. Those of us in the advanced economies need to retrofit and insulate our homes and workplaces for energy efficiency; lower thermostats in winter and raise them in summer; use high efficiency light bulbs and appliances; turn off unused electrical appliances; drive the most fuel-efficient cars possible, and reduce meat consumption in favor of a healthy, environmentally-friendly plant-based diet.

These personal activities will not by themselves be sufficient to avert future calamity. We must also make institutional changes, both technological and economic. We must “de-carbonize” our energy systems as quickly as feasible by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources that are limitless, benign and harmonious with nature. We especially need to halt the construction of new coal plants, since coal is by far the most polluting and most dangerous source of atmospheric carbon. Wisely utilized, wind power, solar power, tidal power, and geothermal power can provide all the electricity that we require without damaging the biosphere. Since up to a quarter of world carbon emissions result from deforestation, we must reverse the destruction of forests, especially the vital rainforest belt where most species of plants and animals live.

It has recently become quite obvious that significant changes are also needed in the way our economic system is structured. Global warming is intimately related to the gargantuan quantities of energy that our industries devour to provide the levels of consumption that many of us have learned to expect. From a Buddhist perspective, a sane and sustainable economy would be governed by the principle of sufficiency: the key to happiness is contentment rather than an ever-increasing abundance of goods. The compulsion to consume more and more is an expression of craving, the very thing the Buddha pinpointed as the root cause of suffering.

Instead of an economy that emphasizes profit and requires perpetual growth to avoid collapse, we need to move together towards an economy that provides a satisfactory standard of living for everyone while allowing us to develop our full (including spiritual) potential in harmony with the biosphere that sustains and nurtures all beings, including future generations. If political leaders are unable to recognize the urgency of our global crisis, or unwilling to put the long-term good of humankind above the short-term benefit of fossil-fuel corporations, we may need to challenge them with sustained campaigns of citizen action.

Dr James Hansen of NASA and other climatologists have recently defined the precise targets needed to prevent global warming from reaching catastrophic “tipping points.” For human civilization to be sustainable, the safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is no more than 350 parts per million (ppm). This target has been endorsed by the Dalai Lama, along with other Nobel laureates and distinguished scientists. Our current situation is particularly worrisome in that the present level is already 387 ppm, and has been rising at 2 ppm per year. We are challenged not only to reduce carbon emissions, but also to remove large quantities of carbon gas already present in the atmosphere.

As signatories to this statement of Buddhist principles, we acknowledge the urgent challenge of climate change. We join with the Dalai Lama in endorsing the 350 ppm target. In accordance with Buddhist teachings, we accept our individual and collective responsibility to do whatever we can to meet this target, including (but not limited to) the personal and social responses outlined above.

We have a brief window of opportunity to take action, to preserve humanity from imminent disaster and to assist the survival of the many diverse and beautiful forms of life on Earth. Future generations, and the other species that share the biosphere with us, have no voice to ask for our compassion, wisdom, and leadership. We must listen to their silence. We must be their voice, too, and act on their behalf.

Bearing Witness at the Oilsands: Marlee Hosho Ross

Join us at Upaya August 16-18, for BEARING WITNESS TO THE ONENESS OF LIFE with Roshi Bernie Glassman. For more information, click here.__________

Photo at Alberta Tar Sands by Peter Essick for National Geographic

Walk on. Ask what is in the wind. Ask what is sacred. —M. Atwood/Canadian poet

On return from a week of bearing witness, and walking as a pilgrim, Buddhist chaplain, and citizen, through the vast and controversial tar/oilsands of northern Alberta, Canada, I am left with a sense of complicated and unsettling truths, and a grandmother’s heart, at once sobered, and full of the sacred.

I went to take part in a Healing Walk, through a 14 kilometer portion of the industrial wasteland of the oilsands, a walk of spirit, offering and healing, organized by the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Mikisew Cree First Nation, the Keepers of the Athabasca . We walked in unison with them, being guided by their generous leadership, vision, and healing ceremonies.

My intention was to walk as a pilgrim and a Zen peacemaker, alongside the profound suffering there, bearing witness to all affected beings, excluding no one. I considered this not a protest, but rather walking a shared path to healing and to a deeper understanding of the unfolding path of the dharma, just showing up, an embodiment of zazen, invoking the strength and company of Avalokiteshvara. I came to understand that it was a deep charnel ground practice.

One does not do this work alone. Norah Myogen traveled with me… together, we created sangha and held our Upaya chaplaincy practice and commitment, driven by our shared love and great intimacy with our Canadian wilderness, and our deep concern at its threat in our fragile, imperiled north. Two rakasus and a jeep!

Acting out of non-separation, of interconnectedness, and of bearing witness, we were very aware of the truth of pilgrimage being that one walks by oneself, but not for oneself, and that one walks for those who cannot. We carried the intentions of many concentric sanghas.

Dropping down in our small plane, south of the actual oilsands, approaching the boomtown of Fort McMurray, Canada’s vast boreal forest is laid out beneath us. This largest intact forested region on our planet is a tangled, deep green glory of black spruce, jack pine, balsam fir, tamarack and poplar, interspersed with the new greens of muskeg, moss and wetlands. It is a land of short, hot summers, and long, cold winters. It is The North, a latitude that stretches across the northern globe, between the temperate forests, and the arctic tundras of the world.

Hawks and falcons cruise the sky, the dawn chorus of the loons, magpies and white-throated sparrows, still singing. The boreal forest is home to the iconic moose, beaver and caribou, the breeding ground of 60% of our continent’s birds, and moves with an immense flow of rivers into the Peace-Athabasca Delta, and the Mackenzie Basin. Holding one fifth of Canada’s fresh water, it flows north, ultimately emptying into the Arctic Basin…. One ocean.

We came to see clearly, and we did.

Recognizing that on the ground, we were only able to see a tiny edge of the enormous truth of the scale of the oilsands, we hire a helicopter. After a brief green sweep north, following the grand open river valley of the mighty Athabasca, the reality of the largest industrial, capital, and energy project on the face of our earth is splayed out beneath us on all sides. An unutterably barren, ashen wasteland, a charnel ground of inconceivable size, that stretches far beyond what the eye can see, in every direction; for the full flight, we know that we are seeing a only a miniscule corner of what exists here. The leased land holdings for projected oilsands development cover an area the size of the state of Florida.

Settling into not turning away, mediating through the shock and awe with tonglen, we take in as much of the vast, monolithic scorched ground as we can….eyes seeing to understand… the massive unfolding of the eating and being eaten in the dying and the decay. The unspeakable fallout is in the land, the water and the air.

The helicopter drops down as low as it legally can, tipping towards a huge open pit mine, one of hundreds. Any discernable life has long been stripped away, and we see armies of dump trucks, that appear from the air as dinky toys, but in fact are three stories high… 400-ton trucks working with massive electric shovels. They never stop, day or night. It takes two tons of excavated earth and sand to make one barrel of thick, tarlike bitumen crude, the dirtiest hydrocarbon on the planet.

We see immense industrial parks of belching ‘upgraders’, pouring out thick smoke plumes that fill the birdless sky. We see acres of ‘tank farms’ of oil product, dozens of football fields of yellow sulphur, huge installations of ‘man camps’, military-style barracks, camps that house the 40,000 workers who work relentless 12-hour shifts, stopping only if the temperature drops below minus 50 degrees.

The production of the ‘dirty oil’ from the tarsands produces 3-4 times as much greenhouse gas/carbon emissions as any conventional method. A shameful contribution to climate change, that now has the eyes of the world upon it.

We learn new terms... 'overburden’… the life, soil, creatures, and growth that is stripped away when the forest is clear-cut, the rivers diverted, the wetlands drained, the open pits dug. We see the myth of reclamation.

‘Tailing ponds’… a terrible euphemism for gigantic open pits of watery, deadly toxic sludge, the size of which collectively can be seen from space, and which tragically are seen by waterfowl as water. Some of the biggest dams in the world, built with overburden, attempt to hold back the cesspools of innumerable mixes of acids, sulphates and carcinogens… a chemical soup. There is not yet any real technology to effectively deal with this deadly waste.

With water usage that is recklessly unsustainable, 11 million litres of toxic waste water a day, seep out of the tailing ponds/pits, directly into the boreal forest, and into the Athabasca River…every day. A toxic soup that flows north, moving through the tender lakes, deltas and tundra, and into the Arctic Ocean… One ocean.

On landing, our helicopter pilot, an affable young man from Calgary, offers a thread of possibility… "It won’t stop. But there will be more reclamation, more accountability. The younger generation is different. We want different things.”

Fort McMurray is a tough place. A boomtown, an urban service area, a northern town gone berserk with the speed and smell of money. A fleet of international workers, from every continent on our globe, fly in, work, and fly out… long shifts, a disconnect from home, an urgency of go hard or get left behind; the highest rents in the country. A town driven by fast food, testosterone, and oil. Every conversation is about money…wanting it, getting it, not having enough of it, in a town of $18 hamburgers. Buying, spending, and the rampant drug and sex trades mediate the loneliness of displacement. There are also generational families who have chosen to stay, and are working hard to create community.

We settle into chaplaincy salons of exchange… in family diners, lobbies, Starbucks, buses and shelters, and we listen to many… a power engineer, crane operator, waitress, street worker, native mother, journeyman electrician.

“It’s the money, eh. We humans are the weeds of the planet. No one to keep us in check, other than a change in ourselves.”

“I gonna take two jobs this summer, gonna make a killin’. Good crew a work with tho, makes all a difference.”

“I love it here. Came 31 years ago. I was 18. Things have really changed, the good and the bad. But the work’s good, and the peoples’ good.”

“There’s nothin’ here for the body to live on. Just gotta make it through the shift. And that money, man.”

“No, I don’t like it. I’m only here cause of my kids. I’m from Fort Chip, downstream. There I’d be sick or dead. We can’t eat our fish. They all got tumors. The companies, they don’t do what they say they will. Our people don’t get much of the money that’s here.”

“Down south, there’s not the work, fewer contracts, more competition. Here up north, the company’s gotta take care of ya… it’s like Daddy-O, and Jesus, the money.”

“These boys are here cause their dreams are broken, their money’s gone. We just ask them to help out a little, and we feed every soul that comes through that door.”

When I explain my intention of walking in healing, and in spiritual care, to a weathered older oilrigger from Newfoundland, he replied with a quick ease, "Well then, sweetheart, I thank you. That bein’ the case, we’re just gonna have to make a place for you to walk.”

The next morning in the Indian Campground, a stiff wind comes up off Lake Gregoire, quickly drying out our tent, and blowing off the clouds of mosquitos. It had rained heavily in the night, which our hosts, the Keepers of the Athabasca, clearly understood as a blessing and a cleansing, and heard as the tears of Mother Earth.

Thich Nhat Hahn was recently asked what we as a people need to do, to save our threatened world. He answered, “What we most need to do is to hear, within us, the sound of the earth crying.”

Within us… with no separation and with a deep understanding of acting from our profound mutuality… within us all, is the power of waking up to the delusion of duality, and thus to fearless transformation, and to compassionate action.

Avalokiteshvara, who hears the cries of the world… our bodhisattva ideal has prepared us well for this work. Our Native hosts live within a cultural imperative of interconnectedness, and in this, they are our teachers.

On this gray morning, thankful for the cloud cover against an otherwise beating sun, we prepare to walk the 14 kilometer Syncrude loop, through the scorched earth on the edge of the monolith of the oilsands. We gather, some 500 of us, a phalanx of citizenry from all corners of our continent, and organize ourselves behind the native elders, and their Dene drummers.

We begin to walk. Walking is the way of the pilgrim, the way of the seeker, the way of the peacemaker… peace in every step. It is the way of embodied practice, and of appropriate action. We walk resolutely, taking our pace from the slow, measured steps of the elders, who lead quietly, stopping in each of the Four Directions to offer prayers, ritual ceremonies, and offerings of healing.

We walk in silence, in prayer, in chanting, and in moving conversations. There are chiefs from 20 First Nations across Canada, environmental leaders from Harvard and Ottawa, ranchers from Alberta and Texas, farmers from Saskatchewan and Idaho, professors and scientists from a dozen universities, activists, ministers, grandmothers, priests and warriors… all of whom have offered their resources and commitment to reach this outpost at the edge.

The walk is grueling, and slow, an arduous 8 miles of kinhin, our eyes stinging, our throats and skin burning from the toxic stench coming off the smoke stacks and the tailing ponds. We move often towards the deep beats of the Dene drumming, to restore strength. With a single glance to the side of the road, I see three dead sparrows. Over 30 million birds are projected to be be lost over the next 20 years due to tar sands development.

We walk along a portion of Highway 63, known locally as the Highway of Death for the high speeds, accidents and massive tonnage loads on the highway. We are escorted by a line of police cars, from the RCMP, and from the Peace Officers of the Wood Buffalo Reserve. The endless line of tanker trucks, semis trailers, buses and pickup trucks, grinding on by us, are forced to slow right down, and more often than not, honk in acknowledgement of us. There are no incidents.

We continue walking, taught as chaplains to hold the edges, and to abandon no one. There are so many moving edges here, stories of anguish, despair and hope to be heard, hearts to be held and encouraged, suffering to be transformed, loads to be shared, we hold to capacity. Shared joy, laughter, and purpose erupt as well.

We are walking for the overburden, and walking as the overburden itself, returning literal life to a biologically barren ruin. And at each of the Four Directions, we all stop together, a focused sangha, facing the direction, putting away cameras and cell phones, and offering prayer, silence and ceremony, led by the grace and determination of those older, ‘the elders’.

For the last, final and most tender direction, we all stop in front of a particularly vast, steaming, toxic tailing pond, walled in behind a chain-link fence, its acrid poisonous fumes coating us all. The oily surface of the watery sludge, water that is no longer water, is scattered with orange plastic blowup scarecrows. Incessant shrieking air cannons break the silence, deterring water birds from landing to their deaths.

And in this charnel ground, three Native women elders, and a very old chief, kneel in the toxic clay, their graceful, colorful, hand-stitched ceremonial robes dragging in the sludge, as they sing, pray, and offer healing gifts of tobacco to the suffering earth. Many weep openly, the sounds of their crying, our pain, indistinguishable from that of the earth itself. The collective transformation is audible.

Our time in the camp that night was a time of release, of gratitude, and of feasting and celebration. The generosity of our hosts was extraordinary. They offered a grand feast of moose, caribou, deer and game for us all, storytelling, drumming, and dancing, and most of all, offered open reciprocal friendship. There was a tremendous sense of shared honour, of being present at an event that marked, and supported a great turning. Many, including several fellow Buddhists, shared stories of how this healing walking had inspired them towards acts of their own appropriate action… "I live my life in widening circles.”

The next morning, after breaking camp, and with the jeep heading south towards home, MyoGen and I moved to find an open, accessible bank of the great Athabasca River, on which to offer a healing ceremony in it’s care, in the care of water itself. We settled on the clay bank, at the confluence of the Athabasca and Clearwater Rivers, with a profound sense of the mythological underground rivers of all connecting flows beneath us. In the company of heavy weeping rain, and the persistent buzz of mosquitos, we offered a liturgy of healing to the river. We read excerpts from Sensei Kaz Tanahashi’s translation of Dogen’s Mountains and Rivers Sutra, sang from the Upaya liturgy, offered corn, sage, tobacco and water in the Four Directions, and placed two healing Zuni turquoise fetishes, a grandmother and a frog, into the Athabasca’s swift current, along with a single stone from the glacial source of the great Himalayan rivers… One ocean.

The way of the Buddhist pilgrim chaplain is walking, walking the path. Pilgrimage alters us. The gift of pilgrimage is the courage to continue walking with the strength of clear conviction, and the courage to serve. The gift of pilgrimage is the restoration of fearless compassion. We are elders all.

Winona LaDuke reminded us that, “Our power is in the earth; it is in our relationship to the earth.” In addressing our culture of entitlement, we each need to examine our own complex relationship to it, and recognize that individually, and collectively, we all have the capacity and resilience to wake up, and to say no. Everything changes. We all have a choice.

This Healing Walk was a deep collective of walking spiritual ecologists, a sangha of citizenry. Radiance in the midst of charnel ground. In reconnecting our heartminds to the profound mystery of interconnectedness, we were all recommitted to the unutterably necessary perspective of listening to the wisdom of the seven generations before us, and of considering, and acting with love, for the seven generations after us. Walk on.

In the final words of the Buddha, “Conditioned things break down. Tread the path with care.”

This Precious Human Birth: Ben Howard

Photo by Alexander Howard

On Friday, June 14, my granddaughter, Allegra Rose Howard, arrived in the world, weighing eight pounds and twelve ounces. As I reflect on that glad event, I am reminded of a phrase from Tibetan Buddhist teachings.

The phrase is this precious human birth. Its source is the Chiggala Sutra, where the Buddha speaks of the chances of being born a human being. Those chances, he observes, are infinitesimally small. They are analogous to those of a blind tortoise swimming in an ocean as large as the planet, where an ox’s yoke is afloat on the waves. Every one hundred years, the tortoise surfaces. The chances of being born human are no better than those of the tortoise surfacing with his head in the yoke. Human birth is extremely rare and therefore most precious.

In the lojong system of mind training practiced by Tibetan Buddhists, phrases such as this precious human birth are known as “slogans.” Contemplated and absorbed during sitting meditation, they are subsequently applied to everyday life. As the Zen teacher Norman Fischer explainsin his book Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong (Shambhala, 2012), the best way to work with a lojong slogan is to develop it “as an almost physical object, a feeling in your belly or heart.” Once the slogan has embedded itself, you can work with it throughout the day, until it becomes “part of your mind—your own thought, a theme for daily living.”

This precious human birth is one of four “preliminaries,” or cornerstones, of the lojong system, and in my experience, it is one of the most potent. Whether consciously invoked during the course of a day, or allowed to arise of its own accord, this phrase can provide three illuminating perspectives on whatever we might be doing, thinking, and feeling at the time.

To begin with, this resonant phrase broadens one’s general outlook. It encourages the long view. When compared to the immense good fortune of being born human, the frustrations and setbacks of everyday life, however real or urgent, look smaller and less substantial. Likewise our petty complaints and hoarded grudges, our habitual gripes and deep-seated grievances. They too look minute when contrasted with the immense gift of living a human life, speaking a human tongue, and experiencing human love. By regularly reminding ourselves of that contrast, we can engender a reordering of our emotional priorities and a renewed appreciation of our everyday lives.

At the same time, this precious human birth can prompt us to reexamine the purpose and direction of our thoughts and actions. “Tell me,” demands the poet Mary Oliver in her poem “The Summer Day,” “what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?” In its own way, this precious human birth poses the same question. And to be confronted, periodically and sometimes unexpectedly, with that question can cause us to reconsider the motives and the deeper meaning of whatever activity we might be engaged in, be it pulling weeds or driving in heavy traffic or listening impatiently to a garrulous friend. In Abraham Lincoln’s famous formulation, the phrase can summon us to inquire where we are and whither we are tending.

Beyond these personal benefits, this ancient slogan can awaken us to the mystery of birth itself. Those of us who have never given birth (and never will) can only imagine the pain of labor, which for the mother may temporarily banish any thought of the mystery of birth. But any one of us can honor that mystery, which transcends the boundaries of ordinary thought. Taking stock of the human condition, poets and dramatists from Aeschylus to the present have discerned in human existence an abiding sadness and a tragic coloration. With Virgil they have perceived the “tears of things.” And as the anthropologist Loren Eiseley once remarked in conversation, apropos of my son’s impending birth, thoughtful people of every generation have questioned the wisdom and the morality of bringing a child into a troubled world. To all such grave reflections, however, the birth of a child offers a joyous, thundering rejoinder. For as the Tibetan slogan eloquently reminds us, that event is as momentous as it is unlikely and as precious as it is rare.

(Source: One Time, One Meeting: The Practice of Zen. http://practiceofzen.com/2013/06/26/this-precious-human-birth/#comment-1899. Accessed 22 July 2013.)

The Compassionate Attitude of Bodhichitta: Tsoknyi Rinpoche

...Whether our dharma practice will progress in the right direction depends on our attitude, our intention, our motivation. Motivation is extremely important: it is what everything stands or falls with.

This is true not only in spiritual practice but in whatever we set out to do. Therefore, in Buddhist practice it is of utmost importance to continually correct and improve our attitude.

The attitude we need to cultivate is one that is suffused with bodhichitta, or awakened heart and mind. This enlightened attitude has two aspects. The first aspect is the urge to purify our negativity: "I want to rid myself of all shortcomings, all ego-oriented emotions such as attachment, aggression, stupidity and all the rest." The second aspect is the sincere desire to benefit all beings: "Having freed myself of all negative emotions, I will benefit all sentient beings. I will bring every sentient being to the state of complete enlightenment."

This compassionate attitude of bodhichitta should encompass oneself as well as all others. We have every reason to feel compassionate toward ourselves. In the ordinary state of mind we are helplessly overtaken by selfish emotions, and we lack the freedom to remain unaffected when these emotions occupy our mind. Swept away by feelings of attachment, anger, closed-mindedness and so forth, we lose control, and we suffer a great deal in this process. In such a state, we are unable to help ourselves, let alone others.

We need to relate to our own suffering here with compassion, in a balanced way, applying compassion toward ourselves just as we would do with others. In order to help others, we must first help ourselves, so that we can become capable of expanding our efforts further. But we shouldn't get stuck in just helping ourselves. Our compassion must embrace all other beings as well, so that having freed ourselves of negative emotions we are moved by compassion to help all sentient beings.

At this point in our practice it's O.K. that our attempts to experience the attitude of bodhichitta are a little bit artificial. Because we haven't necessarily thought in this way before, we need to deliberately shift or adjust our intention to a new style. This kind of tampering with our own attitude is actually necessary. We may not yet be perfect bodhisattvas, but we should act as if we already are. We should put on the air of being a bodhisattva, just as if we're putting on a mask that makes us look as if we are somebody else.

In Tibet there is a lot of livestock: many cows, sheep, yaks. The skin from these animals needs to be cured in order to be useful. It needs to be softened by a special process. Once the hide has been cured, it becomes flexible and can be used in all sorts of ways: in religious artifacts, to bind up certain offerings on the shrine, as well as for all kinds of household purposes. But first it needs to be prepared in the right way—it needs to be softened, made flexible. If the hide is simply left as it is, it hardens and becomes totally stiff; then it is nothing but an unyielding piece of animal skin. It is the same way with a human being's attitude. We must soften our hearts, and this takes deliberate effort. We need to make ourselves gentle, peaceful, flexible and tame, rather than being undisciplined, rigid, stubborn egocentrics.

This softening of our heart is essential for all progress, and not just in terms of spiritual practice. In all we do, we need to have an attitude that is open-minded and flexible. We are deliberately trying to be a bodhisattva, to have the compassionate attitude of wanting to help all sentient beings. This conscious effort is vital, because it can genuinely soften us up from deep within. If we do not cultivate this attitude, our rigidly preoccupied frame of mind makes it impossible for the true view of ultimate bodhichitta to grow. It's like trying to plant seeds in a frozen block of ice atop Mount Everest—they will never grow, they will just freeze. When, on the other hand, you have warmed up your character with bodhichitta, your heart is like fertile soil that is warm and moist. Since the readiness is there, whenever the view of self-knowing wakefulness— the true view of Dzogchen that is ultimate bodhichitta—is planted, it can grow spontaneously. In fact, absolutely nothing can hold it back from growing in such a receptive environment! That is why it is so important to steadily train in bodhichitta right from the very beginning.

The word dharma, in this context, means method. The dharma is a method to overcome the delusion in our own stream of being, in our own mind—a way to be totally free of the negative emotions that we harbor and cause to proliferate. At the same time it is a way to realize the original wakefulness that is present in ourselves. There are ten different connotations of the word dharma, but in this context we are speaking of two types: the dharma of statements and the dharma of realization. The dharma of statements is what you hear during a lecture or a teaching session. Within the dharma of statements are included the words of the Buddha, called the tripitaka, as well as the commentaries on the Buddha's words made by many learned and accomplished masters.

Through hearing the explanations that constitute the dharma of statements, and through applying these methods, something dawns in our own experience. This insight is called the dharma of realization, and it includes recognizing our own nature of mind. In order to approach this second kind of dharma, to apply it, we need the right motivation. Again, this right motivation is the desire to free oneself of negative emotions and bring all beings to liberation. We absolutely must have that attitude, or our spiritual practice will be distorted into personal profit seeking.

Basically there are three negative emotions: attachment, aggression and closed-mindedness. Of course, these three can be further distinguished into finer and finer levels of detail, down to the 84,000 different types of negative emotions. But the main three, as well as all their subsidiary classifications, are all rooted in ignorance, in basic unknowing. These are the negative emotions we need to be free of, and their main root is ignorance.

Someone might think, "I approach dharma practice because my ego is a little bit upset. My ego is not very intelligent, not quite able to succeed. I come here to practice in order to improve my ego." That attitude is not spiritual.

Here's another attitude: "My ego works so hard. I must take care of my ego. I must relax. I come here to practice and become relaxed, so that my ego gets healthier and I can do my job." That type of attitude is O.K., but merely O.K.; it's just one drop of a very small motivation.

We can, in fact, have a much larger perspective. As long as we harbor and perpetuate the negative emotions of attachment, anger, closed-mindedness, pride and jealousy, they will continue to give us a hard time, and they will make it difficult for others to be with us as well. We need to be free of them. We need to have this attitude: "I must be free of these emotions."

Otherwise, what Gampopa said may come true: if you do not practice the dharma correctly, it could become a cause for rebirth in the lower realms. That may happen for many people. In fact, it happens more frequently among old practitioners than with beginners.

Someone may relate to dharma merely as a kind of remedy to be used when confused or upset. This of course is not the real purpose of spiritual practice. In this kind of situation, you do some practice till you have settled down, and then you set it aside and forget all about it. The next time you get upset, you do some more practice in order to feel good again. Of course, reestablishing one's equilibrium in this way is one of the minor purposes of practice, but it's not the real goal. Doing this is a way of using the dharma as if it were a type of therapy. You may of course choose to do this, but I do not think it will get you enlightened. Feel a little bit unhappy, do some dharma practice, get happy. Feel a little bit upset, then feel fine, then again feel unhappy. If you just continue like this, holding this very short-term view in mind, then there is no progress. "Last night I didn't sleep—my mind was disturbed, and the dog was barking next door. Now my mind is a little upside down, so I need to do a session to cure it. O.K., this morning I'll meditate."Do not practice in this way.

Dharma practice is not meant merely to make oneself feel better. The whole point of spiritual practice is to liberate oneself through realization and also to liberate others through compassionate capacity. To practice in order to feel better only brings one back up to that same level—one never makes any real progress. With this attitude spreading in the West, we may see a huge scarcity of enlightened masters in the future. They will become an endangered species.

Please understand that the pursuit of "feeling better" is a samsaric goal. It is a totally mundane pursuit that borrows from the dharma and uses all its special methods in order to fine tune ego into a fit and workable entity. The definition of a worldly aim is to try to achieve something for oneself with a goal-oriented frame of mind—"So that I feel good." We may use spiritual practice to achieve this, one good reason being that it works much better than other methods. If we're on this path, we do a little spiritual practice and pretend to be doing it sincerely. This kind of deception, hiding the ego-oriented, materialistic aim under the tablecloth, might include something like, "I take refuge in the Buddha, dharma and sangha, so I must be pure." Gradually, as we become more astute at spiritual practice, we may bring our materialistic aim out into the open. This is quite possible—people definitely do it. But if this is how you practice, you won't get anywhere in the end. How could one ever become liberated through selfishness?

There comes a point when we start to lose faith in the illusions of this world: our level of trust in illusions begins to weaken, and we become disappointed. Using spiritual practice to nurture our ego back into good health while still retaining trust in these illusory aims does not set us free. True freedom does not mean having a healthy faith in illusions; rather, it means going completely beyond delusion. This may not sound particularly comforting, but it is true. It may be an unpleasant piece of news, especially if we have to admit to ourselves, "I have really been fooling myself all along. Why did I do all this practice? Am I completely wrong?" What can you do to pretend this isn't true? Facing the truth is not pleasant.

The real help here lies in continually correcting and improving our motivation: understanding why we are practicing and where we are ultimately heading. Work on this and bring forth the noble motivation of bodhichitta. Then all methods and practices can be used to help you progress in that direction.

Again I must emphasize this point: if we want to approach ultimate truth, we must form a true motivation. This includes compassion for all other sentient beings who delude themselves continuously with the contents of whatever arises in their minds. Compassionate motivation says, "How sad that they believe so strongly in their thoughts, that they take them to be so real." This deluded belief in one's own thoughts is what I call the "granddad concept." First, we hold our thought as true. Next, we accept that delusion, and it becomes our granddad. You know what it's like to suffer from this delusion yourself, in your own experience. Bring to mind all other sentient beings who let themselves get caught up in their granddad delusion and, with compassion, form the wish to free them all. That's the true motivation: please generate it.

Unless we have completely pure and true motivation, the practice of Vajrayana and Dzogchen doesn't turn out well. Paltrul Rinpoche was a great Dzogchen master. He did not have any major monastery, but he had an encampment of thousands of practitioners that was called Paltrul Gar— Paltrul's Camp. Over and over again, he taught those gathered around him the importance of having pure motivation. He created a situation referred to as “the three opportunities” to improve the motivation of these practitioners. The first opportunity was at the sound of the wake-up gong in the early morning. Upon hearing the sound, people had the opportunity to think, "Yes, I must improve my motivation. I must put myself into the service of others; I must get rid of negative emotions and assist all sentient beings." They would repeatedly bring that to mind in order to adjust their aim.

The second opportunity arose at Paltrul Rinpoche's main tent. To get into it, you had to pass by a stupa, and at the opening to the enclosure, you had to squeeze yourself by to get through. The entranceway was deliberately made narrow so that you paused for a moment and thought, "This is the second opportunity to adjust my motivation."

The third one occurred in Paltrul Rinpoche's teaching itself, at the times when he would say directly, "You must correct and improve your motivation"—just like I am telling you now.

If these three opportunities did not work, then for the most part, Paltrul Rinpoche would kick you out of the encampment. He would say, "You are just fooling me and I am just fooling you. There is no point in that, so get out. Go away and become a businessman, get married, have children, get out of here! What's the use of being neither a spiritual practitioner nor a worldly person? Go and be a worldly person! Just have a good heart occasionally." What he meant was, it is not all right to dress up as a dharma practitioner and merely pretend to be one. To act in this way is not being honest with others, and especially not with oneself.

Motivation is easy to talk about yet sometimes hard to have. We always forget the simplest things, partly because we don't take them seriously. We would rather learn the more advanced, difficult stuff. And yet the simple can also be very profound. When a teaching is presented as a brain teaser and is hard to figure out but you finally get it, then you may feel satisfied. But this feeling of temporary satisfaction is not the real benefit. To really saturate yourself, your entire being, with the dharma, you need the proper motivation. Please apply this thoroughly, all the time.

In Vajrayana teachings, we find many instructions on how to improve our motivation. In fact, if you really learn about how this motivation should be, the whole bodhichitta teaching is contained within that. Cultivate the correct motivation within your own experience, and it turns into bodhichitta all by itself.

I have been teaching now for 15 years. Teaching on the view, on emptiness and so forth, all of that is of course great. But when I look through the whole range of teachings, the real dividing line between whether one's practice goes in the right direction or the wrong direction always comes down to motivation. That is the pivotal point.

Without pure motivation, no matter how profound the method is that we apply, it still turns into spiritual materialism. To train in being a bodhisattva and to cultivate bodhichitta so that "I can be happy" means something is twisted from the very beginning. Instead, embrace your practice with the genuine bodhichitta motivation.

Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, who is one of my root gurus, would teach on motivation over and over again. He talked about it so much that, frankly, I sometimes felt a little bored, thinking, "He talked about it yesterday, he talked about it today and he will probably talk about it tomorrow. This is a little too much. I've already heard it." This kind of resistance is actually very good proof that ego doesn't like teachings on pure motivation. Right there, at the moment one feels resistance against the altruistic attitude, that is the precise spot to work with, touchy as it may be. To admit this and be willing to deal with it right at that point is very practical, very pragmatic. I think that the whole point of practice is using dharma teachings at the exact point of resistance. Otherwise, we just end up practicing when we feel good, and we avoid it when we feel bored or restless.

At the very moment of feeling depressed, restless or unhappy, take these moods as a really good training opportunity, as a blessing, and put the dharma to use right on the spot. Think, "I am so glad I have this opportunity to practice meditation. I am deeply delighted. Please come here, unhappiness, depression, every type of suffering! Please come closer—I am so happy to see you!" When we train in this type of "welcoming practice" on a daily basis, we can progress and become truly transformed. Otherwise we are just postponing the main problem until some indefinite future time—tomorrow and then again tomorrow. We postpone it again and again, until the doctor says, "Sorry, your time is up! No more tomorrows."

I can promise you that the dharma works well if you use it well. I have a great deal of trust that the teachings of the awakened Buddha are extremely profound and precious. Their practice can solve our basic problem permanently and completely. All our confusion, all our emotional obscurations can be completely undone. Not only can we achieve liberation for ourselves personally, but we can expand our capacity to benefit others at a deep and true level, not just superficially. All these tools and insights are presented in the Buddha's teachings. To use them only for temporary, shallow purposes—as is often the case with practice as a bit of self-improvement—degrades the Buddha's teachings to the level of a self-help book. There is no need for that. There are already more than enough of those—stacks of them, mountains of New Age self-help books suggesting this or that kind of therapy. If this is all we want out of Buddhism, we can turn to the easily understood self-help books that already exist. They are actually very useful. But if the future of the Buddhist tradition is no more than another self-help variation, I feel somewhat sad. Someone who simply wants a stronger ego to face the world, make more money, influence people and become famous maybe doesn't need Buddhism.

This sort of dharma talk was probably not heard in the past in Tibet. It wasn't necessary then, because the country was full of true practitioners. You just had to look up the mountainside and somebody was sitting there practicing. You could see the dwellings of hermits from wherever you were, scattered all over the sides of mountain ranges. At any given time throughout history, the Tibetan tradition abounded with great practitioners who had given up all material concern. These people were happy to just get by on whatever came along, happy to let whatever happened happen; they were free of all emotional baggage and worry for themselves. Maybe they did worry somewhat in the beginning—let's say the first six months of practice—but then they went beyond petty worries. They did not spend their whole lives trying to deal with emotional issues. They dealt with them and went on to the real practice. They did not remain inside the cocoon of spiritual materialism. Wouldn't it be sad to die like that, wrapped up in selfish worry?

Particularly when we come to Vajrayana practice, we must also have a certain amount of courage, a certain kind of mental strength, and together with that, an openness and softness of heart. This quality does not mean we are spaced-out or preoccupied with one thought after another. Rather, we should have a willingness to understand how to practice, along with open-mindedness. This quality of inner boldness is very important in Vajrayana: being bold not in an aggressive way, as when you're ready to fight whoever opposes you, but rather being ready to do whatever needs to be done. That is a very important quality.

To be a Vajrayana practitioner requires a certain degree of inner strength that grows out of confidence. This is not the aggressive strength of a fighter; it is more a preparedness that refuses to succumb to any obstacle or difficulty: "I am not going to give in, no matter how hard it is. I will just take whatever comes and use the practice to spontaneously liberate that state!" Be this way rather than timid and afraid, always shying away from difficult situations. It is very hard to be a Vajrayana practitioner with a timid, chicken-hearted attitude toward life.

The teachings I discuss here belong to the vehicle of Vajrayana. The Sanskrit word vajra literally means "diamond," which is the hardest of all substances. A diamond can cut any other substance, but it cannot itself be cut by anything else. The diamond's strength and impenetrability signify that when the true view of Vajrayana has dawned within our stream of being, we develop a quality of being unmoved or unshaken by obstacles and difficulties. Whatever kind of harm may present itself, whether it be a negative emotion or a physical pain, we have a certain quality of being unassailable, instead of immediately becoming lost and being defeated by that obstacle. The true practitioner of Vajrayana is unassailable in the face of difficulty. We can succeed in really improving our motivation, and that would be wonderful, not only for ourselves, but also for being able to benefit others.

Leaning Into the Light: Roshi Joan Halifax

Join Roshi at Upaya Sep 13, 2013 — Sep 15, 2013 for G.R.A.C.E: Training in Compassion-based Interactions in the Clinician/Patient Encounter. For more information on this program click here. _________

Photo of Roshi Joan Halifax

This is the first time in the history of the earth that major threats to planetary survival stem from our human behavior. We can mechanically solve certain kinds of problems, but technology cannot heal our deluded mind, and for many, technology feeds our delusions.

Looking deeply, we see that only wisdom and compassion can solve delusions. How can we have the energy and commitment, the aspiration and inspiration to develop qualities of mind and heart that will nourish a sane and balanced world?

His Holiness the Dalai Lama once remarked that tigers look scary; He reminded us that mostly human beings look smart. He then asked us: who causes more destruction?

This reminds me of a Koan: The Book of Serenity, Case 12, "The Main Case." Dizang asked Xiushan, “Where do you come from?” Xiushan said, “From the South.” Dizang said, “How is Buddhism in the South these days?” Xiushan said, “There’s extensive discussion.” Dizang said, “How can that compare to me here planting the fields and making rice to eat?” Xiushan said, “What can you do about the world?” Dizang said, “What do you call the world?”

The world is at risk; we are the world. The renowned humanist Vaclav Havel one said that morality means taking responsibility, not only of your life, but for the life of the world. From a Buddhist perspective, it means seeing yourself as not separate from all beings and things and acting accordingly.

One way that this insight is expressed is through engaged Buddhism, which is a contemplative approach to human service, social action and the details of our daily living. Roshi Bernie Glassman articulates the Three Tenets of Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Compassionate Action as a basis for a spirituality that is engaged with the suffering of life. He further speaks about the Five course meal: spirituality, study, livelihood, social action, and community as media for inspiration and transformation.

We can ask then, how can inspiration make it possible for us to actualize compassionate action in the world? How can we engage the suffering of others with clarity, steadiness and authentic compassion? What makes it possible for us to go through suffering and to find meaning in the midst of catastrophe? How is it that suffering can give rise to profound inspiration? And why is it that leaders who have suffered can exemplify qualities of wisdom and compassion that make “spiritual democracy” realizable and be a great source of inspiration for others?

King Ashoka of India was the grandson of Chandragupta – the founder of the Mauryan dynasty – and the son of Bindusara. He came to the throne around 268 B.C.E. and died approximately 233 B.C.E. He is known primarily from his the “Legend of Ashoka” and his rock and pillar inscriptions found in various parts of India.

His edicts offer us important information about his reign and policies. After eight years of rule, Ashoka waged a terrible war against the kingdom of Kalinga (Orissa today) and was so horrified by the carnage he had caused that he gave up violence and turned to Buddhism. His transformation process is fascinating for us to consider.

Asoka's edicts are primarily concerned with the powerful reforms he instituted and the ethical principles, which he recommended in his attempt to create a just and humane society. We will look at some of the policies instituted by Ashoka and how they reflect compassion and depth of character, and also how they are sourced in an experience of inspiration born from delusion and suffering.

Another powerful role model who exemplifies a transformation of character is Nelson Mandela. Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said about Mandela: The crucible of suffering made him great. He was not this way before he went to prison. He had no great capacity for empathy.

In Buddhism, we use the image of the lotus in muddy water as an example of the transformation of human suffering and delusion into inspiration and enlightenment. This transformation process is about engendering fundamental and radiant unselfishness, a state of mind and heart that is based in a worldview that is conducive to seeing “reality” clearly.

Seeing reality clearly means at least to see that we are not separate from all beings and things, and thus the suffering of seemingly others is our suffering as well. This is about the development of Bodhicitta, according to Buddhism, a heart that is engaged.

So we endeavor to realize the Bodhisattva ideal and vows and to develop characteristics of a dharmic personality. This requires the integration of love and necessity, according to James Hillman. In Buddhism, this is done through the Bodhisattva practice of the paramitas, which include generosity, virture, patience, wholeheartedness, mindfulness, and wisdom. The paramitas are flavors within the body of inspiration.

Archbishop Tutu also reminds us that our humanity is tied into humanity; we can only be human together. Rabbi Zalman Schachter puts it another way: The only way to get it together is together.

This sense of the existence of the great web of life is activated through the experience of going deeply within, developing an interior life, nurturing the capacity to see reality clearly, and having the deep aspiration toward fundamental unselfishness which in essence means to benefit others. These qualities and processes are the heart of inspiration.

Path of Service: the Upaya Resident Body

Resident Brian Durel playing the Banjo at Upaya; photo by Allison Dublinsky

Guests and sangha members who attended Sangha Planting Day or any recent retreat featuring musical accompaniment may recognize Brian Durel (age 29, from Baltimore Maryland) as the banjo player in Upaya’s own band, The Three Poisons (formerly the Four Noble Truths). Watching him rip open a package that contained his newest instrument—a melodica—and starting to play it, was perhaps the closest one can come at a Zen Center to bearing witness to that particular glee of a kid on Christmas morning.

In the resident community of Upaya, Brian also serves as librarian and Head of Housekeeping; he recently made a commitment to live and practice at Upaya for a year. When faced with explaining to someone what he’s up to hear at Upaya, in terms of the external world, he admits the particulars don’t sound “terribly interesting.” “What I’m actually doing is scrubbing toilets, making beds, sitting, watching my breath, occasionally doing a metta practice telling myself and other people that they’re doing great.” But, he said, “the inner world is more interesting;” that’s where “it feels like a lot is going on.”

Six years ago, when Brian started coming to New Mexico, he had never heard of Upaya, or much about Zen or Buddhism. He was familiar with Roshi Joan for her work as an anthropologist, before she was a Roshi, and it was his own interest as an academic that drew him here to take part in Navajo ceremonies, to study shamanic culture and practices. This academic exploration flowed from Brian’s work in college as American History major focusing on indigenous studies, but when he had a “religious experience” during a ceremony, it led him to a new interest in comparative religion and an exploration of a different sort. As he made friends in New Mexico, “people started mentioning Upaya,” and in his own developing spiritual search he was compelled two years ago to come for a visit as a guest practitioner. Declining an invitation to stay at that point, he entered a period of uncertainty and searching for his next step. He realized he sought a spiritual community and the discipline of a structured lifestyle of practice and came to a clear sense of recognition: the only thing I want to do is live at Upaya.

When he first showed up at Upaya earlier this year, Brian says he had very few preconceptions about Zen, apart from having read Alan Watts’ book. He remembers feeling “porous, open; sponge-like,” during his first immersion into intensive practice with the Upaya sangha. He arrived at the start of a practice period, and during that time, also read Shunryu Suzuki Roshi's Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, which encouraged him with a message he summed up as “Show up; you don’t need to know anything.” “The practice, the discipline, and the intensity were providing me with really interesting experiences, opening up stuff that had been closed off… All of those intersected to form a really powerful initiation to Upaya.” Following his first sesshin, Brian experienced a coming down from the mountaintop period, from the ideal Upaya he saw at first, to the real Upaya. “The first month was very blissful.” Looking back, he describes this as a honeymoon period in which he saw everything in an intensely beautiful light, followed by a time when he started seeing the shadow side. He experienced “wanting to close off,” and a lot of skepticism for a time, in a journey not unlike the Three Phases of the Student Teacher Relationship, Roshi often describes (Idealization, Demonization; Normalization). “The bright sunny part and then a very dark period here.”

Now, he says, he’s reconciled that Upaya may not be “a Summer of Love ideal community,” but that’s he’s really happy to be here practicing. In his initial ideal view, he saw everyone as living and practicing in a myth. Now, he says, he realizes that they myth isn’t necessarily literal, but we’re all living in a myth and doing a mythical practice. It’s “The Hero’s Journey of Housekeeping,” he jokes. “Bringing back the insights of scrubbing toilets to the masses.”

Brian currently wears a mohawk haircut with alleged mythical status bestowed by a lineage of Upaya residents in what’s become known as “the Transmission of the Hawk.” In receiving this transmission, Brian says, “I worry that I blasphemed it. I broke with form. But I made it much more fashionable.” In looking ahead to a year in Santa Fe, Brian hopes to discover opportunities for dancing to classic R&B music, Motown, and the Beach Boys. He also enjoys playing music with the Three Poisons; when pressed, he admits he identifies most with the poison of greed, “but aspiring toward hatred right now.”

Of the year ahead, he says, “I have goals, but I don’t think they’re terribly useful.” Facetiously, but with heart, he names these goals: the hope to develop “a well-integrated balanced personality that perhaps has no need for a personality but can adopt one at will when it’s useful. Healing. Clarity in terms of a career or life plan or something that would give me some illusion of security.” He mentions the possibility that he’ll go to grad school; “or maybe I’ll go back to dog-walking,” he says.” Revealing his outlook on goals in the life of practice to which he’s dedicated himself, he says, “Practice with it now and something comes out of that.”

These talks, given by extraordinary Buddhist teachers such as Roshi Joan Halifax, Sharon Salzberg, Bernie Glassman, and many more, are offered to support your practice even if you live far away from Upaya.

Apps Available Now: Did you know you can have Upaya's dharma talks delivered directly to your mobile phone or MP3 player?

iPhone and iPod users, just use iTunes to subscribe to our free podcast here.

Program Change Announcement - Social Resilience Model (SRM) Training, Levels I and II

Due to the interest expressed in the SOCIAL RESILIENCE MODEL (SRM) Training Level l, we are offering it in August, 2013 and reschedule the SRM Training Level ll for 2014.

SRM Training I teaches all eight skills, including the 6 skills for use in self-care. The application of these skills not only can serve your patients, clients, friends and family members but, most importantly, fortify your resiliency zone by prioritizing your own self-care.

Upaya's Nepal Nomads Clinic: Compassion in the Mountains

Roshi Joan Halifax, Tenzin Norbu, and Carroll Dunham will be returning to Nepal Sep 23. The 2014 journey and Clinic are in a planning process. Contact Upaya if you are interested. Please support. Check out new website for stories from our medical pilgrimages (link below).__________

Every year (since the early eighties), Roshi Joan goes with clinicians and friends to the Himalayas with the Nomads Clinic. We invite you to join us in supporting this wonderful work. And great thanks to Chas Curtis, Cira Crowell, and Canton Becker for putting together this wonderful website!:http://nomadsclinic.org/

THURSDAYS (most), 9:20 am: Weekly Seminar, Upaya House living room — open to the public. Topic is usually related to the dharma talk of the evening before. To confirm that the seminar is happening that morning, please email temple@upaya.org.

SUNDAY, July 28: Upaya Dharma Discussion group gathering, at 6:30 pm at Upaya House. The topic is the first Paramita: May I be generous and helpful.

Zen Meditation Instruction:Sunday, August 4th at 3 pm. Come for instruction and Q&A about the basics of Zen meditation (zazen). Everyone is welcome!

Our group has chosen to study the 6 Paramitas over the coming months. 6:30 - 7 pm is generally a social time, and then the program/discussion is from 7 pm - 8:30pm. We encourage going to the 5:30 Zazen/sit at Upaya, and then bringing a sack supper up to Upaya House if desired, or just coming at 6:30 for tea and cookies. New-comers are very welcome. Upaya House is on your left, closest to Cerro Gordo, as you drive into the parking lot. Jan Jahner, RN and Upaya-trained Chaplain will be leading this discussion about the complexities of generosity. Please join us. Also, you can sign up to get Local Sangha updates on the Upaya Website at http://www.upaya.org/about/sangha.php.

You are an important part of Upaya's community! Thank you for your participation, and for sharing this with anyone else who may be interested.

CEUs and CNEs for 2013: Attention Therapists, Counselors, Social Workers, and Nurses

photo from the Being with Dying training program, 2013

CEUs and CNEs are available for many programs at Upaya. For a complete list of those available in 2013, click here.

Two replacement vehicles needed for Upaya. Do you have any leads?

STILL LOOKING FOR 2 VEHICLES with automatic transmission and around or less than 100,000 miles, in good condition:

Small economical four-door car

Four-wheel-drive pickup truck

If you can help or if you have any leads, please contact Ellen Stevens, Business Manager, at finances@upaya.org or 505-986-8518 ext.16.

Upaya Sitting Groups in the US, South America, and Canada

If you appreciate Roshi Joan's teachings and the flavor of engaged practice at Upaya, see if there is one of these affiliates near you:

Calgary, AB, Canada: Calgary Contemplative End of Life Care Practice Group. For professionals and volunteers working with people who are dying. Second Monday each month at Hospice Calgary's Sage Center, 6:30 – 8:30 pm. Sit starts at 7 pm. For further information, contact laurie.lemieux@hospicecalgary.com